Group of prisoners sent...

INMATES MOURN LEGISLATOR. A

August 18, 1989

- BILOXI, MISS. — INMATES MOURN LEGISLATOR. A group of prisoners sent flowers to the wake of Rep. Larkin Smith as a tribute to the former sheriff who always treated them with respect, one inmate said. Twenty prisoners at Harrison County Jail sent a flag-shaped arrangement of red and white carnations to Wednesday's memorial at a convention center in Biloxi. Smith and pilot Chuck Vierling, 58, were killed in a small plane crash Sunday night. ''He was a man who helped us realize we weren't just dogs and trash to throw away,'' said trusty inmate Dennis Alexander, night-shift head cook at the jail. Alexander said he and other trusty inmates owe their vocational skills to programs begun by Smith when he was Harrison County sheriff.